Australia and New Zealand Winter 2017

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Australia and New Zealand, Winter 2017



Australia and New Zealand have been on our bucket list for some time. We finally decided to go in February of 2017. The biggest drawback is their remoteness from just about anywhere. These Southern Ocean islands rise out of the ocean, far from Asia, Europe, and from the US. Yet travelers from all of these places put up with appearing yellow and pasty and feeling ill after hours of travel to get there.



We flew to Sydney from Los Angeles, about a 15 hour trip. We stayed in the hip Ovolo hotel in the Woolloomooloo neighborhood.(It is easier to pronounce than you might think, but I won’t try to help you here). It’s about a 15 minute walk to Circular Quay (pronounced “key”), and the Opera House, ground zero for tourism. Seeing the Opera House in person was fulfilling. We enjoyed dinner in the Bennelong restaurant there- expensive but a thrill.



I have a college classmate, Scott Kendler, who got a taste for travel, landed in Australia after a few years, and never left. He and wife Diane graciously hosted us for a couple of days.



One inexpensive highlight of our Sydney Visit was voyaging by ferry from Circular Quay to Manly Beach. Sydney has a big harbor, somewhat like San Francisco Bay. Car travel is slow, so ferries make a lot of sense. They are a great way to get an inexpensive harbor tour. As we passed the mouth of the bay we rode the ocean swells. Scott met us in Manly.



We hiked the trail out of Manly towards the Spit which hugs the bay. We enjoyed broad vistas, and passed Aboriginal glyphs. The trail is 10 km; it is possible to ferry one way and take public transport back to center city. We walked partway, and turned around. We lunched at a bakery just off the trail in Manly; civilized hiking is our cup of tea.



We interspersed our outside time with visits to several museums. The Art Gallery of New South Wales featured Aboriginal art as well as typical western art of all periods. The Australian museum- also interesting- was about animals and anthropology.



Sydney fish market was a lot of fun. This is the largest fish market outside of Hong Kong. In addition to wholesale, there is a retail section which was filled with Chinese families celebrating the New Year dining on snow crab and other fresh-from-the-sea delicacies.



After 4 nights in Sydney, we rented a car at the Airport and drove to the Blue Mountains, a couple of hours away. The Fairmount hotel there was fabulous with breakfast overlooking a grand canyon-like depression in the earth. There is a cable car, a funicular, and lots of trails with railings and stairs installed to make them more accessible.



We skipped some of the more visited areas such as the Barrier Reef (extra hot and stingers this time of year) and Ayers Rock (too far to travel) and headed south to Tasmania. It takes a while getting used to everything being reversed in the Southern Hemisphere; south is cool and north is hot. After Sydney’s summer heat, Tasmania was refreshing. We spent a couple of days in Hobart, the capital. Tasmania was originally populated by prisoners from the British Empire. With the exception of Hobart, Tasmania is still pretty undeveloped and wild.



We visited Port Arthur, a preserved men’s penal colony. There was a boys’ prison, on an island in the harbor, and a women’s prison in Hobart itself. It was interesting learning about what was thought to be the most enlightened prison program at the time. There was an opportunity for inmates to acquire a trade, there was a hospital. There was also a “Separate Prison”, for incorrigible inmates, where they stayed for 23 hours a day in isolation- no talking- with one hour a day for exercise.



After an overnight in Melbourne, we headed to New Zealand, landing in Queenstown. New Zealand has a 5 million population with density similar to Colorado, so there is plenty of open space. New Zealand consists of two islands. The Southern Island is home to the Southern Alps. Queenstown is surrounded by them. It sits at the head of a mountain lake, a bit like Lake Tahoe. There were many visitors with money to spend, so activities offered feature the Heli-hiking, jet boating, parasailing, and of course bungee jumping. It was possible to spend money quickly with guided “this and that”, but there are also many campers and hostelers visiting on the cheap. We stayed in a very nice hotel, the St Moritz, part of the French Accor group. While we saw few Americans in Australia, Queenstown was loaded with them. It seems to be the place to go. There were also many Europeans, particularly young Germans. We were told there is a holiday visa that is easily obtainable, where Europeans can work for 6 months in New Zealand, and then travel for 6 months. New Zealand apparently needs hotel and restaurant workers, and this is one way they get them.



We drove to the other end of the lake, and hiked to smaller Sylvan Lake through a forest out of Lord of the Rings (filmed in New Zealand). We rented cars, both in Australia and New Zealand, and I did OK driving on the left. It was a relief to return the cars without incident.



Our next stop in New Zealand was Mt Cook (Aoraki). This is the highest mountain in the Southern Alps. We stayed in the Hermitage, a national park lodge. The view could not be improved. At breakfast and dinner in the dining room we watched the play of light on the mountains. Sir Edmund Hilary (a Kiwi) trained on Mount Cook (Aoraki) for his Everest climb. There is a museum of climbing that bears his name which is worth a visit.



We didn’t do any climbing, but we did several spectacular hikes to glaciers. One walk featured shaky suspension bridges over a raging river. It reminded me of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where Indy is cornered by the bad guys on the rickety suspension bridge. The head bad guy says “the Jewels will be found, Dr. Jones, but you won’t!” Mt Cook (Aoraki) was the highlight of our trip.



Interestingly, New Zealand was people-less and mammal-less until about 800 years ago, when Kupe made landfall from Tahiti on an outrigger canoe. Captain James Cook, a Brit, visited in 1769. Today’s inhabitants are both Maori (Polynesian) and English descendants. Most public signs are in two languages. There is no actual New Zealand date of independence from Great Britain; it was achieved in small steps, with the court system connected until 2003. Queen Elizabeth II is still the Head of State. We visited one small town on our travels, and in the historical museum there, the talkative woman said that the British-descended New Zealanders thought of the UK as home until the UK joined the EU in 1973.



Our last stop in New Zealand was Christchurch. In 2011, and earthquake devastated the central business district with 188 dead and $50 billion in damage. Reconstruction is still underway. Glossing over the empty lots and teardowns, the city is reminiscent of England, with a beautiful botanical garden and a small river, the Avon, running through the center of town. It will be a gem a few years from now, but there is not that much to see at present.



Our return trip took us to Auckland, a 1.5 million population city, and then a 12 hour flight to Los Angeles. The flight home from New Zealand was about 3 hours shorter than the flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, and we were past ready to go home at that point.



Both in New Zealand and in Australia, the people could not have been nicer. Tourism is a “product”. It is smart business to welcome visitors. As the US projects a more hostile image to foreigners, Australia and New Zealand offer English speaking alternatives with equally wonderful sights and welcoming people. I am surprised that our new president, with his background in hospitality, does not realize that making foreigners feel welcome to the United States is smart business. Travel, for enjoyment, education, or whatever purpose is a product where we can be very competitive- if people feel welcome. Australia, in particular, was very hospitable to Chinese visitors. There were big displays celebrating Chinese New Year, and there were plenty of Chinese tour groups. Australia is about 5,000 miles from china versus about 7,000 to Los Angeles, so while the trip is a bit shorter, it is fairly comparable.



A big drawback to an Australia/New Zealand visit is the travel time. It is basically a 2 day trip from the East Coast of the U.S. As nice as the sights were, there are similar wonderful sights in the United States and Canada, much more easily accessible to us. While the water is safe to drink and food is safe to eat, and there is good healthcare, as a senior I don’t relish the idea of having some malady and being 10,000 miles from friends and family. For now, I think we will be laying low, and keeping our travel somewhat nearer to home. Good luck on your travels, wherever they may be.

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